We, of course, have to be positive and encouraging in our discourses. But we also have to know how to be realistic. Optimism and goodness are not meant to oppose realism, including its brutal kind, because the circumstances can demand it.
With all the scandals that continue to emanate from high and even sacred places, we need to remind ourselves that we have feet of clay. Ergo, there’s always a duty to be careful, to be prudent, to take the necessary precautions so as to avoid falls that precisely can be avoided.
It’s painful to hear of people’s heroes and highly publicized socialites and celebrities, let alone, religious leaders fall shamefully from their pedestals because they failed to remember this basic truth about ourselves.
Consider the case of Mel Gibson. Many people held him in high esteem, practically idolizing him, because of his good movies, especially “The Passion of the Christ.”
For a while he acted according to normal expectations of a worldling who converted and was trying to be a consistent Christian believer. Everyone was pleasantly held in suspense. Many must have prayed for a good ending.
Then came reports about his drunkenness, his anti-Semitic rants, and now his divorce and taking on a sweet young Russian doll. It’s obvious many people were crushed by these developments.
Take the case of a former bishop, now president of a country, who in one week’s time was forced to admit he fathered three children from three different and very young women who could be his daughters.
To top it all, it was said that given the machismo-soaked culture of his country, that news may even enhance his image. The world has indeed gone mad and wild!
Or the case of a young, attractive priest, Cuban-American, a syndicated columnist with TV shows to boot, with an estimated following of millions. Then pictures of him cavorting with a woman in a beach were splashed in the media! In disbelief, the papers screamed, “Dios santo!” And the world kind of collapsed.
Only God, of course, can be the final judge. And there’s always hope, since all of us are a work-in-progress. We can still spring good surprises anytime. But no one can deny that the scandals have knocked us down, like Pacquiao on Hatton.
Our Lord’s words come to mind: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Mt 18,6)
There’s no other way. We really have to remind ourselves constantly that no matter how confident we are of our strength, physical, moral or spiritual, we still have feet of clay.
In the Book of Daniel, we are told of a statue whose head was made of fine gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, its legs of iron. All impressive! But its feet were, sadly, part iron and part clay. (cfr 2,32-33)
It took only one small stone that struck it at its feet to bring the whole statue crumbling down. It’s an image of how we are—we can be majestic in many aspects, but we’ll always have these feet of clay, our Achilles’ heel.
We should always be on guard, distancing ourselves from temptations and occasions of sins, purifying our intentions always so as to ward off unwelcome thoughts and desires, ever developing an authentic spirit of penance to cleanse and strengthen ourselves as we go through the adventure of life.
We need to be humble and transparent, especially in our spiritual direction and confession, to have constant recourse to the sacraments, and also to develop a deep devotion to our Lady, so we can be helped to remain simple and resistant to the allures of the world and the devil.
We have to be good in waging spiritual combats. We are ranged against powerful opponents. Above all, let’s fill ourselves with a continually renewing and cross-driven love for God and neighbor. This is the ultimate way to escape the grasping clutches of our weaknesses.
This is, of course, not an exercise in negativism, in being a wet blanket to human interests. This is prudence and wisdom, the cunning of serpents while having the simplicity of doves that our Lord wants us to have always.
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Email: roycimagala@gmail.com